


Mutual

by HiMiTSu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, tumblr prompt fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 02:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6593821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiMiTSu/pseuds/HiMiTSu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a tumblr prompt: Hartmon prompt: Now they kind of don't hate each other, Hartley angsts about Cisco's wellbeing around evil Wells, but he knows Cisco probably won't believe him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mutual

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably set during the time when Cisco was proving that Wells is eveil, but before it became too apperent. Also not sure I completely understood the prompt right but I am quite happy with how this turned out.

Hartley knows something is not right; no, scratch that, Hartley knows exactly what is wrong. He had already gone through his own ‘Disappointed in my Mentor’ phase, so he understands exactly what Cisco is going through. It shows in his every move, shoulders slumping and gesture lacking the usual energy. His voice is lower, language more subdued; he does not react to Hartley’s sarcasm and doesn’t even turn his head to scoff at Latin when they are working together. Hartley sees it and keeps quiet.

The peace between them is still too tentative, too new even after months of quiet. It is not friendship, so, honestly, Hartley shouldn’t even be worried but he feels responsible, somehow. After all he was one of those people who helped Cisco prove Harrison Wells’ betrayal, and now he feels like he should also help Cisco carry this secret. Only, his help would obviously be unwanted.

Cisco asks him to come to STAR Labs sometimes, when they need help with a new device or a new meta, but they never talk outside of work. They are not friends; they are colleagues at best.

So Hartley notices all but doesn’t dare to speak.

“You okay?” Cisco asks when Hartley is silent for too long and isn’t that a strange irony, when all Hartley had been thinking about is how not okay Cisco is. “You look weird.”

“Oh well, thank you for that.” Hartley waves him away with a frown.

“No, I mean…” Cisco looks around as it that will help him find the right word. “Troubled. You look troubled. Did the dinner with your parents go bad?”

Hartley presses his lips together and taps the keyboard with too much strength. “It went fine.” Better than when they disowned me at least, is what he carefully does not say out loud.

“So, bad, but not horribly wrong,” Cisco summarizes; the assessment is unexpectedly accurate and it makes Hartley tear his eyes away from the screen and meet the other’s gaze. Cisco smiles weakly at him. “I guess that’s an improvement?”

Hartley is silent for a moment until he lets himself relax and lets out a long sigh, “I guess.”

“I’m sure next time will be even better. Relationships are not built out of nothing, there needs to be a start.”

“Except they are my parents, we already have a start.”

“Yeah, but…” Cisco winces at the horrible flaw in his own logic but it only makes Hartley smile.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he retorts easily, somehow feeling much lighter that he did a couple minutes ago.

When he turns back to his work a new thought strikes him, so sudden he loses all focus and looks over the computer screen at Cisco again. What is he was wrong? What if they are something more than just colleagues; not friends yet but closer to it than he thinks. Cisco, unknowingly, came to mean a lot to him, so maybe it works the other way around just the same. Maybe he means something for Cisco too? Maybe he can help the other ease his pain?

“Hey, Cisco?”

“Hm?”

“Are _you_ okay?”


End file.
